It can be beneficial for a printhead, devised for the deposition of ink without contacting a surface on which the ink is to be deposited, to maintain a tightly controlled gap between the printhead and the printed surface of a substrate. If the printhead is too far away from the substrate surface, the printing can be too diffuse. If the printhead is too close to the substrate surface, printing can be too granular. When too close, the printhead may even contact the substrate, resulting in damage to both the substrate and the printhead. Positioning a substrate in a horizontal plane can also affect printing quality and efficiency. Horizontal positioning is complicated by the need to reapply ink to the printhead without interfering with the substrate. Accordingly, there exists a need to control both the print gap between the substrate and the printhead and to control the horizontal position of the substrate relative to printhead arrays, to optimize both the printing results and the printing process.